Fiber Fool

There are two three things that make today special. It is the birthday of two wonderful women, one historical and one contemporary. It is also the kick off the Nourishing Knits blog tour! The first stop on the tour is at one of the members of my Monday night knitting group - Kathryn aka Alpacamundo. Coming up, Nourishing Knits will also be found at Twisted Knitter, Mrs. Pao, The Independent Stitch, and PoMo Golightly!

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I had the privilege of having three designs published in Interweave Press’ first special issue of Jane Austen Knits (Ravelry).

The smallest of the patterns, but probably the most challenging to write was the Pemberly Slippers. The model size was not my size so I’m kind of itching to knit myself a pair soon. I’m looking forward to it even more since I wore through my last knit slippers. Knitting new ones are more fun than darning old ones :-) I just don’t know what color I want… Hmm….

I’m not certain which sweater was more knitting. This one, the Elinor Tunic, was a larger gauge but larger surface area. I was inspired by the empire waisted dresses of the time, but shortened them to a tunic that can be worn over a long skirt for a classic look or worn over leggings or skinny jeans for a more modern flare.

Barton Cottage Shrug I think was my favorite to knit. There was something magical about carrying an entire sweater project around in a sock knitting project bag :-) All the stockinette stitch meant it was a great choice to work on while traveling too. It is another one I really, really want to knit in my size. This one fit my mom quite nicely, but I have a much more prominent chest than she so I’m not certain if this sample would ever fit me, even at my target goal weight.

I was especially honored when the editor of Jane Austen Knits, Amy Clark Moore, asked if she could borrow my sample shrug to wear to a birthday tea in Jane Austen’s honor. I was flattered and only asked that she share a couple pics.

Amy posted today at Spinning Daily about attending the tea. If you were not aware that there was a Jane Austen Knits group on Ravelry, check it out.

Now, onto the important bits - the birthdays! Today is Jane Austen’s birthday, but it is also my friend and editor, Amanda’s birthday! Both seem like a great reason to have a giveaway, don’t you think?

I knit on both the Barton Cottage Shrug and the Pemberly Slippers while I was in Minnesota this past May and grandma ooo’d and ahhh’d over them. I knew I’d want to send her a copy to peruse even though she hasn’t knit in many years. But then I heard they had sold out of the first print run and was worried I wouldn’t be able to get an extra copy. So, when Amanda was in a local store with some in stock she picked me up a copy. Then I got my package from Interweave and they sent me a copy per pattern! So, I now have two more copies of Jane Austen Knits than I need so it is time to give them away!

Since I’ve had my nose to the grindstone working on Nourishing Knits I haven’t read my own copy of JAK yet. So, to enter the giveaway, post in the comments which pattern you would cast on first (or have already cast on) to get one entry. Be sure to leave a valid e-mail address so I can contact you if you’ve won.

If you’d like more entries, you can post once per day to Twitter, just be sure to include “@fiberfool” in your tweet so I’m certain to see it and link to this post. You can also “like” the Designedly, Kristi group on Facebook for another entry, just leave a separate comment saying you have liked the page. You have until next Thursday, 12/21/2011 at midnight MST to enter. As a bonus, I’m giving away a copy of Nourishing Knits when the likes reach 150, 200, 250 and so on to a random follower there.

I’ll assign a number to each comment, and then each Twitter post in the order they are received and will use Random.org to choose two numbers. I’ll announce the two winners on Friday, 12/22/2011. Best of luck to you all!

To say that the last several months have been crazy is an understatement. Not only was I trying to wrap up Nourishing Knits, but I was frantically knitting THREE projects for Jane Austen Knits and one for PieceWork because, to be truthful, some guaranteed income was quite welcomed.

Now that Nourishing Knits is done I somehow had thought I’d have a bit of a break. This delusion lasted long enough for me to do what has become an annual thing and cast on a Christmas sweater. Why I decide I only need two weeks to knit a sweater I don’t know. Well, it was actually doable in the past, but on previous years those last two weeks leading up to Christmas were filled solely with knitting and cheesy Christmas movies on cable. This year, I’m putting in a full day of work reformatting the patterns for individual sale (they are now all available separately), updating some of the more popular older patterns to the newer format without the watermark and trying to line up promotion opportunities for Nourishing Knits.

This is what I’ve accomplished since casting on Saturday. I don’t think I stand much of a chance of wearing it for Christmas. Even though this sweater is 10″ smaller in circumference and at a bit larger gauge than past sweaters I have serious doubts. But, there is value in knitting a pattern by someone else so am I am excited to take some time to do so whether or not it results in a sweater to wear for Christmas. I always learn something new, in this case it will be my first bottom-up raglan. Working a creative job can be a bit taxing at times too and pausing to knit a design by someone else gives one time to refill the well, something that I really like to do at the end of the year so I can kick off the next year with excitement and energy. What do you do to prep yourself for the start of a new year?

If any of you are thinking the yarn looks familiar - you are indeed correct!! This is the same yarn I used for last year’s “not Christmas” sweater, Aralia. Let us hope it is not cursed! It is going to grow up to be Aidez this time. Going through the gallery of projects it appears that it looks good both with zero to even a bit of negative ease and on through lots of ease which is just what I need to knit now. While I’m still wearing my Wisteria with 10″ of ease, it will look even more ridiculous next year, so I think this year is its last season for wearing.

The yarn is Cascade’s Eco+ yarn in a gorgeous red! I am making some changes. I’m between the 40″ and 44″ size right now and still shrinking so I’m doing a 40″ back and 44″ fronts. Given my bustiness I’m certain the extra coverage in front will be appreciated throughout my sizes. I am also making the popular change to knit it seamlessly which makes for a kind of crazy chart, but I really like being able to just keep following the chart and not having to think about which chart I need to go to with each stitch marker I encounter. There has been some discussion on the sleeves being too narrow, but my measurements look pretty good for the 40″ sleeves if my gauge in the round doesn’t tighten up significantly so I’m thinking I will do the sleeves up to the join on needles one size larger to eek out just a tiny bit more ease. I figure there is some wiggle room to just block them more severely here early this winter and less so as I continue to lose weight.

Okay, I fessed up to the holiday madness I inflict on myself, do you do the same in any way?

Also, I’ll be back on Friday to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday with a giveaway and to kick off the Nourishing Knits blog book tour, so be sure to stop back by. You don’t want to miss out!

I showed you a glance at Buttercream in yesterday’s post. I’m sure choosing a favorite pattern from the book is like saying one child of many is your favorite. But boy did I enjoy designing and knitting these gauntlets! They totally flew off my needles in record time. Thanks in part to cabling without a cable needle, though that isn’t required.

One of my favorite parts (other than the obvious cabling of course) are the thumb gussets. They are anatomically correct and actually grow out of the center of the palm, just as your flesh starts to form the thumb pad. It makes for a fabulous fit and helps keep the design better centered on the top of the hand. Of course if you have a favorite thumb gusset construction you could always substitute that in, though I would encourage you to give this one a try. You might never make another type of thumb gusset again!

The fingerless gauntlets are fully shaped with the decreases and increases worked right into the pattern. The two mock cables running along the side continue along the sides of the hand.

If you couldn’t already guess, the Buttercream pattern is paired with cupcake-related recipes for the book. I share my favorite cake/cupcake filling, rhubarb and a well-balanced almond buttercream frosting.

Amanda and I had a blast on this photoshoot, despite the cramped quarters of my dining room (Dear Santa, I need a wider angle lens for Christmas please). It was Amanda’s first time piping frosting and I think she did a wonderful job! We of course also had to sample our hard work…

Buttercream is written in one circumference with two different lengths (the longer length is shown here) for fingering weight yarn. This version is knit in Frog Tree Yarns’ Pediboo, whose bamboo content gives it enough sheen to really pop the twisted stitches. The longer length does require two skeins of Pediboo, though many other yarns can produce them with just one skein. For the longer length you’ll need roughly 290 yards, the shorter requires only 245 yards. Additional circumferences can be accommodated by changing gauge slightly. This sample pair fits both Amanda and myself (another @&* pounds heavier than she). In fact, I’ve been wearing them a bit this week while the weather is trying to decide between summer and fall. As with the other patterns in Nourishing Knits, the recipes are only in the book. If you wait for the pattern to be released separately it does not include the recipes.

Monday’s Nourishing Knits update was the final one until the whole book is released. So, when the next installment comes out the price goes up!

I’ll also be putting together a blog book tour once the book is complete. If you’d be interested in hosting a stop on that tour, let me know by dropping an e-mail to aberka at designedlykristi dot com. Please include your blog address in the e-mail!

I should have known better than to think I’d blog two days in a row right now :-/ To say it is crazy around here is an understatement. I’ve made fantastic forward progress, but am afraid I won’t quite make the deadline. At least not with all three things. Even with many a night working to the wee hours of the morning. But, I’m happy to report that with the aid of ibuprofen and the new exercise and diet regimen that I’m making it through with much fewer ill effects than in the past. Yay!

It did occur to me this past week that I never did officially share with you the project that I showed off little peeks at in February. It hit the newstands just as I was getting ready for my Minnesota trip. I had planned to auto post about it while I was away, but time slipped away and I never got the post pulled together.

The fiber I was working with was BFL from Lisa Souza Dyeworks in the colorway Earth Birth and natural BFL from Louet. Both were spun into sport weight yarns and then knit together to make up my latest sock pattern, Annukka. That pattern can be found in Interweave Press Knit & Spin, 2011 special edition magazine.

I was inspired by the bold designs of a Finnish graphic designer who resides in the UK, Sanna Annukka. You may have already seen her work before as she did the album art for one of Keane’s releases and she recently redid the packaging for a famous Finnish candy called Marianne. It is this artist that I named these socks after.

These are a somewhat challenging sock to knit. If you look closely at the cuff and heel flap of the inside out sock above you’ll notice that there is a combination of flat colorwork married with intarsia in those areas. It is a limited area so does not require a multitude of patience, but some will be needed when embarking on this project. But the results - totally worth the extra effort, right? I can’t get enough of that cable cuff. It has so much impact!

I took a queue from Masala and carried the colorwork through to the very end of the toe on these. I love the modified wedge toe and the graphic impact you can have with a vertical fair isle pattern like this.

My copy of the magazine arrived just days before I left for Minnesota. I brought it with me for plane reading (and to show it off to my grandmother). Imagine my surprise though when I saw that all the photographs except the modeled shot were my own!?!? My photography has been printed in the past, but never in this kind of quantity so this article was especially exciting.

I admitted defeat tonight without quite reaching my goal for the day. I’m probably only about a hour behind on it. But the body and the brain are demanding rest so I should sign off for now rather than babbling on here. I won’t make any predictions on when I’ll pop back in this time since I never seem to get it right, LOL!

Keep sending me your wonderful mojo for fast, efficient and error free knitting (as well as writing and drawing schematics)! It is working wonders so far! And so I can live vicariously through you, what did you do to enjoy your weekend?

Yes, I have more apple blossoms for you :-) The tree still isn’t done flowering! Though I think I did photograph it at an optimum stage as I was able to capture tiny buds to fully opened flowers and I rarely needed to remove a spent flower from the frame. Sadly, I’ve not taken other photos since that session though. But I’ll console myself with the reality that I’ll have at least one photo day with my sister and the opportunity to capture even more of where I grew up in just six days!

Right now, the focus is on getting as much work as possible done between now and departure and in doing things to keep my body working through this push. With today’s rather chilly and wet day (yay!) I think I’ll be spending much of it knitting with the company of Ally McBeal on NetFlix and one of Lori Foster’s romances on audiobook while sipping much tea. To break up the knitting sessions I think I’ll do some back care yoga to keep things stretched and hopefully relaxed.

I may not get as much work time tonight. I have been guilted into attending a gathering. DH told me the the math department thinks I do not really exist. Previous gatherings have often been on my knitting night and very little will get me to skip my Monday night knitting group. It is my sanity saver. So unless I’m on death’s doorstep or out of the state, I’m there! But I do not have that excuse tonight. Fortunately the host does not have cats so I may potentially get some knitting done while in attendance. They will just have to understand that I am under a tight deadline and thus have to work while I play. I’ll probably be friendly with knitting in my hands anyway. I get pretty nervous in groups where I know only one or two people. In reality it is nice that they are wishing me to come.

Speaking of nice things, thank you all for your wonderful comments on last weeks post! I haven’t got replies out yet :-/ But, please know I appreciate the comments and will likely start ticking off replies between knitting bouts over the next couple of days.

Now, I have something to ask of you guys. My Dad loves his “little girls” and will do nearly anything we ask. We are aware of this so sometimes make use of that fact to benefit mom. They live outside of a small town so there are no fancy health food stores and the like. Just your plain Jane chain grocery stores of the midwest and a couple big box discount stores. Mom has worked with a dietician for a few years now and lost a lot of weight - from a size 28/30 - 6/8. She has done so with a balanced carb diet, much like a diabetic diet. I have a few favorites I’ve found since I started tracking my eating habits that we can get here at our Whole Foods store (and often at other similar type of stores) and mom is wanting to shop at the Minneapolis Whole Foods when they pick me up from the airport. It will kind of work under the guise of my needing to stock foods that work within my current eating plan.

She had me start her a shopping list a few weeks ago! I’m wondering what your favorites things from Whole Foods are that we may wish to add to her list. She is especially interested in lower carb or high fiber options.

On the list so far:

• Tom-Tom’s Turkey Sticks
• Primal Strips Vegan Jerky (lots of protein, but has a decent shot of fiber too and almost perfectly balanced)
• Noosa Yoghurt
• Skinny Crisps (GF, low carb crackers)
• Jalapeno Pecan Pesto

Of course, a few of those things are local products and I’m not sure if we’ll find them at WF in MSP or not. But, we’ll give it a try! Is there anything else we should have on the list?

Okay, enough computing for the moment. Time to get clicking for the day and contemplate what I’ll do for a quick lunch.